Major gift visits carry a particular anxiety that every development professional knows. The preparation alone can consume hours, as we pull together scattered conversation notes, review giving patterns, and try to remember where the relationship left off. The worry that something important will slip through is always present, whether it is a detail that changes…
Sooner or later, the question lands on a fundraiser’s desk. We are looking at an AI draft that pulls a detail the donor shared in confidence, and something makes us pause. Are we honoring this donor, or using what we know to handle them? The question used to be easier to keep at arm’s length….
Sooner or later, someone is going to ask, "So an AI is writing our thank-you letters?" It might be a board member at a committee meeting, a CEO reviewing operations, a fellow staff member in the break room, a long-time donor who heard something secondhand, or even a member of the news media. There is…
Every October, the same scene plays out at thousands of nonprofits. The development team drafts a well-written letter about the year’s accomplishments, prints it on good letterhead, and mails it to everyone on the list. The results are roughly the same as last year, and that’s the problem. The annual appeal is being treated as…
Let me start with a confession. I am deeply skeptical of AI in fundraising. As a novelist and composer, I try to steer far clear of it. It wants to destroy my human creativity, and I won’t let it. I compose at a piano, using pencil and paper. I outlined my novel on a whiteboard,…
I’ve been working in the nonprofit sector since 1977. Through CharityChannel Press, which I founded in 1992, my publishing house has published more than a hundred books, most of them for nonprofit professionals, covering everything from capital campaigns to board governance to planned giving. I’ve built and administered fund development programs, and founded a few…